🟣 :::READING THREAD::: Week of May 26th

I wanted to throw this one across the room when I finished. Some scenes were seriously like a horror book. I couldn't stop reading though. And the ending. Just the worst. I gave it 2 stars. 

I'm glad you liked it, though. 

Lisa 

I read Happily Never After by Lynn Painter.
Really cute rom-com, that I really liked. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
When Sophie Steinbeck finds out just before her nuptials that her fiance has cheated on her yet again, she desperately wants to call it off. But because her future father in law is also her dad's cutthroat boss, she can't be the one to do it. Her savior comes in the form of a professional objector, whose purpose is to show up at weddings and proclaim the words no couple (usually) wants to hear at their ceremony: "I object!"
During anti-wedding festivities that night, Sophie learns more about Max the Objector's job. It makes perfect sense to her: He saves people from wasting their lives, from hurting each other. He's a modern-day hero. And Sophie wants in.
The two love cynics start working together, going from wedding to wedding, and Sophie's having more fun than she's has in ages. She looks forward to every nerve racking ceremony, where they save the lovesick souls of the betrothed masses. As Sophie and Max spend more time together, however, they discover that their physical chemistry is off the charts, leading them to dabble in a little hook-up session or two-but it's totally fine,because they definitely do not have feelings for each other. Love doesn't exist after all.
And then everything changes. A groom-to-be hires Sophie to object, but his fiance is the woman who broke Max's heart. As Max wrestles with whether he can be party to his ex getting hurt, Sophie grapples with the sudden realization that she may have fallen hard for her partner in crime.

My presence on the board has been super spotty since my hand surgery so I've read quite a lot.  

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.  I gave this 4 stars.  Cal lays out a plan for taking back control of your online time.  He calls for a total detox, followed by intentionally deciding what to add back into your life.  I have not done this.  Truth be told, I'm slightly curious about what I would do these days to fill the time spent online.  I'd be curious to see what it would be like to roll back the clock to the 1980s again, pre-internet.  I have made some changes, though.  

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.  I gave this 5 stars and I was very skeptical as I felt like the entirety of his book, The Coddling of the American Mind was written with a sneer on his face.  I still feel like Haidt has an bias going in and uses the data to prove his point.  However, I think the data was pretty solid.  With that said, I did read a rebuttal in The Atlantic last week from a psychologist who stated that she thinks these concerns are overblown.  They may slightly be and we definitely can't take away kids access to things online, but both agreed that limits need to be in place.  

Slow Productivity by Cal Newport.  I only gave this 3 stars.  I enjoy Cal Newport's books, but I felt this was the weakest one I had read so far.  He tried to take aim at knowledge workers, but I think he confused knowledge workers with creatives.  There was very little of substance to help knowledge workers, like myself, be able to slow down and he focused on a lot of writers/musicians/etc. That's not your typical "face in computer, overwhelmed with email, on edge with Teams IMs popping up" kind of worker, like myself. 

Master of Change by Brad Stulberg.  I gave this 3 stars too.  There were a couple of chapters that I thought laid out some good plans, but most of the book was stories and anecdotes I could have lived without.  This could have been a blog post or podcast with the pertinent information.  Not saying his ideas were bad, on the contrary, I thought they were good.  Just not 250 pages of reading good. 

Magic Pill by Johann Hari.  I gave this 4 stars.  This books examined all the research and arguments surrounding the use of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.  I tend to enjoy Hari's books.  I especially like Stolen Focus which I read about a year ago.  He keeps it conversational.  However, I walked away more confused than ever on whether or not I thought these drugs had more positives or negatives associated with them.  I felt like his use of them was definite bias in favor, but if he were thin and had no use of them, I would probably have thought that was biasing him too. 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  I gave this one 3 stars.  I felt like this book really dragged on.  It was my least favorite of all the Harry Potter books so far.  I swear everyone was angry.  I get why Harry was angry, but I felt like everyone was sniping at one another.  It was a bit off putting. 

Anyway, that's what I've read in the past three weeks. 

I read The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry. I think someone here recommended this book. It's a mystery of sorts set in both 1945 war-time England when children in London were sent to the countryside for their safety, and in 1960 when one of those children is looking for her still-missing little sister. I enjoyed it very much.

Now, determined to read books that are new to me this summer instead of reading the same books every year (!) I am reading Judy Blume's Summer Sisters and loving it. I am thinking she wrote this for all the adults who read her books as kids and are ready for an adult version. Liking it very much and I'll probably be done with it very quickly, so I'm hoping to find more summer reads that aren't completely time wasters.

I like Jeneva Rose and was looking forward to this recent new release. Glad to hear you liked it !

I’ve read three other books by her: You Shouldn’t Have Come Here (‘23 - 3 Stars), The Perfect Marriage

(‘20 - Read ‘22 - 4 Stars) and One of Us is Dead (‘22 - Read ‘23 - 4 Stars).

I DNFed it.

After finishing "Fourth Wing" and "Iron Flame" I was in that book depression that we get after a really good book is finished... People in one of my Facebook groups suggested A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Mass (and the rest of the books in the series). So I read it. I had started it once some time ago but never got into it so didn't finish reading it. This time it stuck, for some reason, and it was pretty good. Not equal to "Fourth Wing" because it doesn't have dragons, but still it wasn't bad. I'm reading the next in the series now. I never read fantasy, except for "Lord of the Rings" and the Narnia books, but I'm enjoying it now. Odd. haha  

In an attempt to find more dragons I read Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. Nope. I slogged through it but didn't care for it at all.

Then I read The Maid's Diary by Loreth Anne White. So many maid/housemaid books out there, lol. This one was a quick read, and a couple of good plot twists. It was entertaining. 

Thanks again for your reviews all!

lainey I’ve read a couple of Jennifer Hillier’s books and really enjoyed them. Adding that one to my list.

I finished Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino and liked it a lot. I recommended if you’re looking for a fun beach read.

I just started Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I really didn’t know what to expect but so far it’s very good!

I’m still plugging away at Humankind by Rutger Bergman. I’m reading a little bit each night before bed so it will take a while. A study of whether or not humans are innately good or evil.

Somehow I stumbled on I hope this finds you well by Natalie Sue. It's gotten some buzz, and the wait at the library was obscene so I checked out the sample, which led to me just buying it.

Very interesting concept and I'm about half way through. It's a debut novel and very well done.

For those of you who loved the guncle, the guncle on vacation came out last week? I think. While it's not as good as the guncle it's an opportunity to revisit these characters again and it's very well done.